Hesperothen; Notes from the West, Vol. 1 (of 2): A Record of a Ramble in the United States and Canada in the Spring and Summer of 1881Russell, William Howard, Sir
History
Hesperothen; Notes from the West, Vol. 1 (of 2): A Record of a Ramble in the United States and Canada in the Spring and Summer of 1881
Russell, William Howard, Sir
United States -- Description and travel
immigration from Europe. The Judge, indeed, held that if the North and
the South had been left to fight it out the latter must have won. But
what avail these speculations now? Let the dead bury their dead, and
let the victors suffer the living to dwell in peace. Here are men,
Southerners and Northerners, living in the same land, who have stood
face to face in battle, and would live all the better if the sleeping
dogs of war were let lie in peace. We were shown on our way to
Richmond the humble shanty in which Stonewall Jackson breathed his
last, and in the grounds of the Capitol itself the statue raised by
admiring strangers to the memory of the Virginian Havelock--and it
cannot be held, I think, that such a memorial as the latter can be
classed with the celebration of the defeats of the Southern armies by
permanent military organisations. He would be a very thin-skinned and
ridiculous sort of Briton who took umbrage at the forthcoming festival
at Yorktown which is to commemorate the surrender of Cornwallis to
Rochambeau and Washington; but the Americans would have good reason to
be moved to anger if we in England were to appoint a day for the
glorification of the capture and destruction of Washington in the last
war, an act of which none of us feel very proud, and of which most
Englishmen are utterly ignorant, even though they may have heard of
New Orleans, Lundy's Lane, and Plattsburg.
The State Capitol is said to be an imitation of the square house at
Nismes. It stands in a fine situation in a park which is decorated
with statues and planted with trees, peopled by beautiful grey
squirrels--evidently the pets of the people. Its principal treasure is
the statue of Washington, by Houdon; but there is a dishevelled-looking
Library of 40,000 volumes, amongst which are some valuable works
connected with the early history of the colony. In front of the
Capitol there is another statue of Washington, equestrian and
colossal, surrounded by statues of Henry, Jefferson, Marshall, Mason,
Nelson, and Lewis; and there is also a fine statue of Henry Clay in
the grounds; but I think we strangers regarded with a deeper interest,
derived from the recollection of more recent exploits, the statue of
Stonewall Jackson, erected by subscriptions raised in England to the
memory of one of the most single-minded and gallant soldiers who ever
fought for a lost cause.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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